[Pkg-exim4-users] question about update-exim4.conf manpage

[Ross Boylan]

On Sun, May 21, 2006 at 10:57:29AM +0200, Andreas Metzler wrote:
> On 2006-05-20 Ross Boylan <ross at biostat.ucsf.edu> wrote:
> > The man page for update-exim4.conf says, in part
> 
1)
> >   If update-exim4.conf is called without the option -o, it
> >   checks the validity of the freshly generated configuration file and
> >   exits with  an error.   In   that   case,   the   new   file   is
> >   not  installed  to /var/lib/exim4/config.autogenerated.
> 
> > Is that the intended meaning?  My guess is the intended meaning is
> 
2)
> > If update-exim4.conf detects that the freshly generated configuration
> > file is invalid it exits with an error.  Unless the -o option was
> > given, the old output file is retained.
> 
> Hej,
> 
3)
> Afaict the documentation is correct, update-exim4.conf does not check
> the validity if -o is given and does not exit with an error if -o is
> given and the file is invalid:

I think 1, 2, and 3 above all mean different things.
First, with -o:
1) gives no information about what happens when -o is used.
2) says when -o is used there is a check, and output occurs in all
cases
3) with -o there is never an error check and output always occurs.
1) is consistent with 2) or 3), but implies neither.  2) and 3) are
inconsistent.  Since 2) is my guess, it's probably wrong.

Second, without -o:
1) validity is checked and an error exit occurs.
My original concern was that 1) literally means an error exit *always*
occurs, even if the file is valid.  The new file is *never* installed
(since "in that case" refers to something that always happens).
2) validity is checked and an error exit occurs if the generated file
is invalid.  If there is an error, the old file is retained;
otherwise, the new one is installed.
3) gives no information on this case

> ---------------------
> argenau:/etc/exim4/conf.d/main# echo blah > invalid
> argenau:/etc/exim4/conf.d/main# update-exim4.conf
> 2006-05-21 10:54:00 Exim configuration error in line 201 of /var/lib/exim4/config.autogenerated.tmp:
>   main option "blah" unknown
> Invalid new configfile /var/lib/exim4/config.autogenerated.tmp
> not installing /var/lib/exim4/config.autogenerated.tmp to 
> /var/lib/exim4/config.autogenerated
> argenau:/etc/exim4/conf.d/main# update-exim4.conf -o /tmp/xxxxx
> ---------------------
> 
These results are consistent with all 3 interpretations, though only
weakly consistent with 3), which doesn't discuss the not -o case.

Ross